May 2, 2008

In films like "Pulp Fiction," "Kill Bill" and "My Super Ex-Girlfriend," Thurman has played fierce heroines, the kind of gals who could squash a pathetic pest like Jack Jordan without ruining their makeup.

That kick-ass Uma was nowhere to be found Thursday in room 1300 in the Manhattan Criminal Court building.

Dressed in funereal black, her face bare and her hair messily pulled back, she practically cowered in a courtroom so new it almost looked like a Hollywood set.

Her hands trembled as she read Jordan's creepy letters in a monotone that wouldn't have gotten her a gig as an extra on a NYU student film.

I don't think an actress witness wants to sound like an actress.

IN THE COMMENTS: Bob aptly adds: "Or perhaps she was doing a performance of an actress traumatized by a stalker to the point that she forgets to put on makeup and speaks in a lifeless monotone."

1) From the legal complaint:"that the letterscontained among other things, a cartoon drawing which represented the defendant walking along the edge of a razor blade,,and which represented [Thurman] digging a grave for [Jack Jordan].

"the defendant's family did, in fact, have defendant involuntarily committed to a hospital after learning of his behavior.

that [Jordan] has been in love with [Thurman] for many years, that he feels that [he] and [Thurman] are fated to be together and that he came to New York, has been sleeping in his car on [Thurman's] block, among other places, has been trying to see [her] in person and continues to love [her]."

2) From the Congressional Record—SenateMonday, July 12, 1999"Late in 1961 President Kennedy appointed an interagency committee to prepare legislative recommendations... This included the recommendation of the National Institute of Mental Health that 2,000 "community mental health centers" (one for every 100,000 people) be built by 1980. A buoyant Presidential Message to Congress followed early in 1963. "If we apply our medical knowledge and social insights fully," President Kennedy stated, "all but a small portion of the mentally ill can eventually achieve a wholesome and a constructive social adjustment." ...The President signed the Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act on October 31, 1963— his last public bill signing ceremony.

The mental hospitals emptied out. The number of patients in state and county mental hospitals peaked in 1955 at 558,922 and has declined every year since then, to 61,722 in 1996. But we never came near to building the 2,000 community mental health centers. Only some 482 received Federal construction funds from 1963 to 1980. The next year, 1981, the program was folded into the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health block grant program, where it disappeared from view.

Even when centers were built, the results were hardly as hoped for. ...the planners had bet on improving national mental health "by improving the quality of general community life through expert knowledge, not merely by more effective treatment of the already ill." The problem was: there was no such knowledge. Nor is there. But the belief there was such knowledge took hold within sectors of the profession, which saw institutions as an unacceptable mode of social control. These activists subscribed to a redefining mode of their own, which they considered altruistic: mental patients were said to have been "labeled," and were not to be drugged. So as the Federal government turned to other matters, the mental institutions continued to release patients, essentially to fend for themselves. There was no connection made: we're quite capable of that in the public sphere. Professor Frederick F. Siegel of Cooper Union observed, ``In the great wave of moral deregulation that began in the mid-1960s, the poor and the insane were freed from the fetters of middle-class mores.'' Soon, the homeless appeared. Only to be defined as victims of an insufficient supply of affordable housing. No argument, no amount of evidence has yet affected that fixed ideological view. "

3) "Deinstitutionalization Hasn't Worked"The Washington Post, Jul 9, 1999 By E. Fuller Torrey and Mary T. Zdanowicz "While Americans with untreated severe mental illnesses represent less than one percent of our population, they commit almost 1,000 homicides in the United States each year. At least one-third of the estimated 600,000 homeless suffer from schizophrenia or manic- depressive illness, and 28 percent of them forage for some of their food in garbage cans. About 170,000 individuals, or 10 percent, of our jail and prison populations suffer from these illnesses, costing American taxpayers a staggering $8.5 billion per year.

Studies have shown that 22 percent of women with untreated schizophrenia have been raped. Suicide rates for these individuals are 10 to 15 times higher than for the general population.

Between 5 and 10 percent of the 3.5 million people suffering from schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness require long-term hospitalization -- which means hospitalization in state psychiatric hospitals. This critical need is not being met, since we have lost effectively 93 percent of our state psychiatric hospital beds since 1955."

Too bad, Uma.We don't believe in social control, except for smoking and trans fats.Your turn to take one for the team.

This "news" article also illustrates the sad state of journalism today. Instead of reporting the facts, the writer snarks about this actress and her acting skill and this defendant, who he clearly favors, and his acting skill. I guess Uma is just supposed to give him a trans-fat-free sandwich and everything will be cool. He seems to hate Uma.

I loved Postcards from the Edge that explored this never-trust-an-actor-demonstrating-emotion thing. They don't know themselves what's real. They can't be real, they don't know what it is. Besides they're too good at it.

We don't believe in social control, except for smoking and trans fats.

Well you can always count on the left to "get tough" on either totally stupid or totally imaginary problems... they wet their pants when it comes to something worthwhile like putting down Saddam, but unhealthy fast food???? they'll go medieval on your ass.

Long ago, fairly early in my trial practice, I saw the recurring theme amongst a substantial number of witnesses, often including the litigants themselves, who seemed to see themselves in the trial thing as characters in their own personal little soap opera. And I'm either getting better at recognizing it, or it's becoming more common now than it was 25 years ago. I hate it when it happens with one of my witnesses. It usually detracts from credibility and really messes a lawyer up in following and selling his theory of the case.

But with Uma here we have the opposite. A known and veteran actress on the stand. If I were her lawyer I'd tell her that she needs to come across as sincere, genuine, down to earth, and upset by this stalker, so do whatever it takes to convey that.

I feel for Uma, very much, but she couldn't act her way out of a paper chapeau. She's an horrific actress.

Granted she could be acting on the stand, since people feel she's giving a "bad performance" but this case reminds me of Lana Turner.

When her daughter killed her mob-boyfriend, she had to go on the witness stand, and possibly lie about who did the killing (her or her daughter) since she gave "dramatic" testimony defending her daughter.

As Wiki says:

"Some observers have said her testimony that day was the acting performance of her life"

I don't criticize anyone here for focusing on a different concern than mine. In fact I was way off topic. The nexus of crime and bad government is one I can hardly get past without steam coming out of my ears.

I don't know Zach, but Uma's babealishiousness has always seemed to pass me by. She is too gossamer and unformed and washed out in an overly skinny tall and angular way. Sort of like an unformed fetus. I think that's the look favored by you gay dudes. I don't really like the skinny beanpole blondes like Uma or Gynneth or that ilk. Give me a healthy brunette like a Selma Hayek or Hallie Berry or J-Lo any day of the week. Now that's prime poontang baby.